Developing video games requires hard work, determination, a little bit of insanity, and a whole lot of luck for a presentable product to be produced in the end. But games don’t always release when the gaming audience wants and games almost always release well after the developers want them to. Sometimes, a game just needs that extra time, whether it’s to make up for a lack of polish, to attempt to meet lofty expectations, to seek out a translation team with the right skill set (and the right asking price), or just due to a little too much feature creep. Therefore, there will always be games that slip past their release dates, that don’t quite make it out when the developer hoped they would (no matter how hard they tried).

It’s easy to be disappointed by delays, but I’m just thankful that, with everything that could go wrong, the games I’m excited for come out at all.

So….

Welcome to the prologue to my personal Top 25 Most Anticipated Games of 2014. I will get into those games very soon once the actual list is ironed out, written, and polished. Meanwhile, the nine games below are all titles that I’ve written about in the past, but have yet to reach the consoles, tablets, computers, and/or handhelds they’re destined for despite being set for release in 2013. No matter the reason why they were delayed, I’m still anxiously awaiting their releases. I hope you will too after you…

Click the header images. captions.

Watch the trailers.

Enjoy the write-ups.

And get excited for what video games have in store for us in 2014.

Edit: There is an issue with linking to trailers on images. Going to just link in the captions instead.

Edit 2: Welp. Captions aren't working either. Going to put them behind spoiler tags then, so I won't destroy anyone's internet by embedding nine youtube videos.

Edit 3: WELP. That didn't work either. Ugly ass plain text it is!

Broken Age

There's not much I can really say about Broken Age. Despite the first half being out in, hopefully, the next few weeks, I don't really know much about the game itself beyond the genre and the basics of the story. And why would I? The adventure game genre is named that for a reason. It's not an adventure if you know all the steps you're going to take to get to the destination.

What I have been paying attention to is the documentary series for backers. Broken Age has had just the right amount of problems and compromises inherent to game development to make for a fascinating roller coaster ride of a series, but not enough crashing and burning for the game to actually, you know, fail. I'm sure 2 Player Productions were excited to see it fall into place like that and have done an excellent job making the most of this opportunity. Even though Broken Age isn't out yet, I can at least recommend future fans of the game or people wanting to know more about how their favourite games are created to watch the dozens of hours of behind the scenes footage out there.

Release Date (Chapter 1): January 2014

Release Date (Chapter 2): April-May 2014

Dark Souls II

I have no useful insight into Dark Souls II. I haven't seen anything about it beyond a trailer or two. Hell, I still have the daunting task of beating the original left to do. Though I have that mountain still left to climb, I've played enough of the original to know that having more Dark Souls to play is a very good, and terrifying, problem to have.

I look forward to this game kicking my ass.

Release Date: March 11th, 2014

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Second Chapter

I still can't believe it.

For a game with a notoriously difficult and time consuming translation to have an announced English localization is shocking. For that game to also be announced for release on a dead system in 2014 is unthinkable. For that game to be a sequel to a JRPG that flopped hard in North America, barely receiving press coverage and hardly selling out its sparse stock across the continent, is nothing short of a miracle.

Even though it was clear XSEED was very passionate about this excellent JRPG trilogy, it was hard to ignore the reality of the situation. No matter how much they wanted to complete Second Chapter and The 3rd's localization, that ship sailed when the PSP died. XSEED needed to completely transition to new platforms to continue localization efforts, which was not a small undertaking. Concentrating on other projects with bigger payoffs and faster turnarounds was just a smarter business move.

XSEED's enthusiasm, however, seems to have been greatly underestimated by fans. While most publishers would have dropped the game for something much more profitable, XSEED made secret deals behind closed doors. When the great people at Carpe Fulgur, known for their localization work on Recettear and other Japanese indie games, went dark two years ago, no one could have known it was because they were secretly contracted to localize Second Chapter for Steam and (digitally) PSP. Not only that, but work was also underway to port the PSP version of the first chapter to Steam and will launch soon in the new year. Since Steam is sorely lacking RPG's of this ilk (something Square-Enix is trying to capitalize on with their old PS1 Final Fantasy ports), this move should work wonders in creating a ton of new fans and ensuring that the series becomes profitable, much like Steam did for Nihon Falcom's other series, Ys.

So this throwback to the PS1 era of JRPG's gets a new lease on life on Steam, it gets an impossible release on a dead system, it gives an established indie localization studio some serious cred, it has given Trails in the Sky fans hope for the trilogy's localization to be completed, and XSEED didn't have to kill themselves financially to do it.

Again, it's pretty much a miracle.

Release Date: 2014

Monster Hunter 4

My excitement for Monster Hunter 4 continues to wane as time goes on. With a timely release of the fourth iteration on the formula, I thought I would be able to skip over the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, but quickly caved once a 2013 MH4 release seemed less and less likely. Now that I have hundreds of hours of monster hunting to cook on a rotisserie and sink my teeth into (so tasty!), Monster Hunter 4 is looking far less tempting than it once did. Plus, I actually know people who own Ultimate, which means I may finally be able to play the series in its intended form.

I guess there will always be some sort of Super Monster Hunter 4 for the Wii U or PS4 or Vita or whatever in a few years anyway.

Release Date: Never?

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

It seems like the popularity of crossover titles has grown exponentially since this game was first announced. Sure, we live in a world where Battletoads & Double Dragon was produced 2 years after the Rare original and Super Smash Bros. is a gigantic system seller on three platforms (thus far), but now all kinds of wacky crossovers have popped up. Even beyond the realm of cellphones, where Batman is in Puzzle & Dragons and the card game Street Fighter x All Capcom is appropriately named, we're continuously seeing developers exploit multiple fandoms in order to maximize their potential customers.

Some would say the video game industry is going too far. That, with the Persona series intermingling their casts and the land of Hyrule serving as a setting for a Dynasty Warriors hack 'n slash, we as an industry are eroding our beloved franchises so thoroughly and quickly that nothing will be left when this is over. Of course, that's pure hyperbole, but if the mixture of classic Namco arcade game characters and Homestuck in the bizarre high school dating sim Namco High isn't a sign of the end times, I don't know what is.

Yet, beyond their sometimes odd pairing and questionable abundance, there will always be a place for crossovers in video games. You may call them cash grabs or desperate attempts for companies to stay afloat in an increasingly cutthroat industry, but that shouldn't stop great ideas from being pursued. And I doubt you'll find a crossover with more raw potential than mixing these two series of logical puzzle solving and eccentric storytelling. I said it before and I'll say it again, these two series are a match made in heaven.

I can't wait to finally play this game once it hits North America later this year.

Release Date: 2014

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Shantae has had a long history of coming out on the wrong platform at the wrong time. The series debuted on the Game Boy Color well after the Advance's release. The sequel was one of the only bright lights in the dark pit of despair that was DSiWare. The metroidvania series required tight controls, fast reflexes, and precise movements, yet Risky's Revenge was ported onto the iOS store just as the bubble sort of burst on paid games.

Recently, the series seemed like a great fit for the PC market, yet it got lost in the wave of independent games trying to get noticed on Valve's ill-designed Greenlight service for Steam. Now that hundreds of titles have been pushed through Greenlight by Valve, it seems like Steam is getting flooded by new independent games every day and metroidvanias are becoming more and more common on the service.

Oh, and that big kickstarter for Half-Genie Hero that Wayforward must have been relying on? It launched mere hours after the now record breaking kickstarter for Mighty No. 9, thoroughly stealing the spotlight from Shantae.

Yep, it's been a long road for this little franchise that could, but I think 2014 will be the year Shantae finally gets the attention it deserves. The 3DS might just be the most popular console in the world right now and the eShop is becoming a more and more viable service for developers, as many hot titles came out on the service in 2013. It's also shaping up to be pretty damn fun if the demo I played at PAX is any indication. It was a brief look, but Pirate's Curse seems to have improved a lot of the series's now well established formula.

Even after a hot year on the 3DS and some great looking titles coming out on the horizon, there's few releases on the handheld I'm looking forward to more than Pirate's Curse.

Release Date: Q1 2014

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Everything we've seen of South Park looks fantastic. The humour is spot on, the animation makes it look like a long lost episode of the television show, and the light RPG mechanics seem incredibly well made and actually kinda remind me of Paper Mario, which is pretty damn high praise.

But there is that constant nagging feeling in the back of my head that something about the project is horribly, horribly wrong. That just beyond the frame of the pretty picture shown to us that the world is on fire. That we're going to discover that this whole thing was just too damn good to be true.

I really hope that's just baseless pessimism.

Release Date: March 4th, 2014

Super Time Force

Super Time Force has gone through a major shift in its gameplay since its first announcement, which made me pretty skeptical. I loved what I played of this time traveling run & gun back at PAX 2012, but playing it a year later put my fears at ease.

The new rewind mechanic shifts focus away from short bursts of repetition to a more fluid gameplay experience. Respawning just a few seconds before your death removes a lot of the game's frustration and quickens the pace with only minor sacrifices of tension and challenge. In fact, these changes allowed Capybara to make the levels a lot more lengthy and fleshed out, as you no longer have to risk starting from the beginning if you miss a crucial jump 20 seconds into the level. Just rewind to the jump, spawn as a new character, and keep on going (sans 1 life). It also gives the game a layer of strategy, as you can choose to spawn in a different class on the spot to access hidden areas, block an incoming attack, or just gang up on a boss.

Looking forward to its eventual digital release and all the goofy, over the top action goodness that comes along with it.

Release Date: 2014

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

Treasure is a studio that are masters of the shooter genre. Whether it's top down, horizontal, on-rails, or run & gun, Treasure has produced some of the highest quality titles the genre has ever seen. Though that's not always the case. The men and women at the company are mortals and they do make mistakes, whether it's a fatal flaw that ruins an otherwise fine game or just a venture into a genre they don't have the experience to tackle.

Nippon Ichi Software is sort of the Treasure of Strategy RPG's.

During the magical time of the PS2 era, Nippon Ichi could do no wrong. They released game after game in the niche genre that all could be considered classics and seemed to be, at least as developer, almost infallible. Once the generation changed, however, Nippon Ichi were revealed to be mortal after all, making damaging partnerships, localizing terrible title after terrible title, and having bad luck finding success outside of that familiar niche (Z.H.P.'s take on the roguelike being the notable exception) that they were quickly bleeding dry. Sure, the newer Disgaea games and even Guided Fate Paradox (Z.H.P.'s spiritual sequel) were solid games, but they weren't of the quality expected of them by their long time fans.

So I can't be blamed that, when NIS announces that they are going to be making an isometric action RPG reminiscent of Diablo, I get a little hesitant. Sure, I threw it on my list last year and I'm obviously looking forward to see how it turns out, but that doesn't mean that I have the utmost faith that Hundred Knights is going to be good.

Sometimes the hope of a game surprising you against all odds is enough for you to look forward to it.

Release Date: March 25th, 2014